We began the hike on Sunday from a small town, San Gerardo, at the base of the mountains at around 1400 meters. We hiked up 15 kilometers the first day, to an installation operated by the park service. Then on Monday, we woke up at 2:30AM, stepped out into the cold and darkness, and hiked up the remaining 5 kilometers to reach the top by 5:15AM, in time for the sunrise.
Looking east, as the sun begins to come up.
The ridgeline with more light out.
The sky was mainly clear, although there were some clouds out of the east that disrupted our view of the sunrise, it was still beautiful. We were able to see Volcano Turrialba, which recently became active again after 140 years, smoking in the distance. In the West, we could see a small bit of the Pacific ocean. The clouds obstructed our view of the Carribean. Cerro Chirripo is one of the few vantage points in the Americas where you can see both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
Turrialba smoking in the background.
Team Chirripo. Marcus, Kayla, Dom, Josh, Fraser, and myself.
After watching the sun come up and taking in the views for awhile, we began our hike down. In the afternoon we arrived back to the town of San Gerardo, where we stayed the night. Overall, we hiked 39 kilometers in about 36 hours. It was a great trip! Hope the photos give you an idea of the views.
